I awoke this morning in my dark subterranean apartment, put on my church garb and walked upstairs. I opened the front door of my building and it was like going from black and white to color. the sun was blasting, the bicycles going up and down the street, people walking their dogs. spring is here! I went to church, everyone was joyous and life seemed abundant. after the service I headed straight home, put on some sandals for the first time this year, which for me is a sort of marker of the seasons. there's sandal season and shoe season. then I made my drive to the park. I was so excited at the thought of catching a fish on a dry that I didn't even stop by LRO. well, I got inside the park, and the mountains have a way of hiding the sun. the wind was blowing pretty hard too. first thing I see is a sign that says the cove loop rd is closed. ok, I wasn't going to fish there anyway, and maybe that'll give the deer a little break from the tourists. so I drive up middle prong and the gate's closed at the gravel rd. ?. so I fished the lower section. after about an hour of fishing with not one single strike, I looked up from the water and just sort of looked around a little. there's no leaves on the trees and everything looks dead. It looks like, well, winter! what was I thinking? later, after I pulled my waders off, I felt almost silly putting those sandals back on. sorry to be a downer, but it's not spring yet in the smokies. maybe next weekend.

I also hit the Middle Prong this afternoon. I also got skunked. But I did have a good time. The gravel road was closed temporarily to do some tree clearing. I found that out AFTER being turned around and having to fish below the Institute. I tried dries. I tried wets. I ended up fishing mostly wet. I really don't like nymphing. I'm gonna have to stop by LRO to replenish my supply of nymphs that I offered up to the Poseidon of the Middle Prong. I also busted up my almost brand new furled leader that I got at LRO a few weeks back. I had tried it out at the Hiwassee a couple weeks ago and I really liked it. Bummer. I don't think it can be repaired. It got wedged between a couple large rocks in the middle of a waterfall with a pretty deep plunge pool and I wasn't about to wade in that far to slavage it. But I did get a chance to try out the 5 wt. pocket water line on my TFO 4 wt. that Daniel hooked me up with. Daniel, the setup is great... almost as good as the 6 wt. pocket water on the 4 wt. In spite of all that, it WAS good to get back up in the mountains on what is probably my favorite stream in the Somkies.